It's worth remembering that without typewriters we wouldn't have computers

In 1714 a waterworks engineer named Henry Mill submitted a patent for a “machine for transcribing letters”, and the typewriter was almost born. It took another 150 years before a machine that we would recognise as a typewriter finally appeared, manufactured and marketed by the sewing machine department of the Remington small arms company.

It is hard to believe, but they are still being built – though not, any longer, in this country. Britain’s last typewriter production line, run by Brother in Wrexham, has delivered up its last model, an electric portable. It has been sent to the Science Museum in London to bookend – with a model of Mill’s original device – its 200-strong typewriter collection, spanning almost three centuries. Nowadays they may seem as quaint as sedan chairs or gas lamps, but without them we would not have computers – a salutary thought.